Recently, I bought my son an iPod for helping me in the yard. He earned it! but when it came, it would not work! No matter what we tried, it would not work. I spent an hour on the phone with their tech support - no luck. They told me to return it to the Apple store.

Well, I am not a technoneophyte. So it was not like I was a rube about it. I know how to follow instructions and the tech lady was very polite. So after work (I am working half days - how else do you think I spread all that mulch?), I grabbed him and we made the trip into the {Gasp} West end (no one goes there voluntarily as the traffic is horrendous! And the lights don't know a sync from a hole!

We get out there, and lo and behold, you cannot go into an Apple store and get service! You have to make an appointment! Luckily we could make one for 20 minutes hence. So we did and waited.

Then we got waited on. The guy was your typical Apple head. Knew everything about Macs, and nothing about anything else. But he could follow instructions and run programs. He plugged up the iPod and said "It says it has no configuration" (OK, why don't they send you to software that can tell you that?). So he loaded a configuration on it (the Tech lady had talked us through doing that supposedly). Then asked us "Windows or Mac?" (I should have titled this "Windows or Mac so that Bluedev could catch a break.). Windows (I have a Mac, but it is only a 180mhz PPC - ancient!).

So he went into the back to test on a Windows machine (It is the Apple store after all). Came back in 10 minutes and said all was fine!

I was not buying it. "We did all that last night and it still did not work! How do we know it is going to work now?". After going back and forth for 10 minutes, he finally said if it did not work again, he would replace it.

I was not looking forward to ANOTHER trip to the {GASP} West End, but took the iPod and my disappointed son home to try it again.

Then something strange happened! It started to work! It started ripping songs off his CDs. But being the doubting Thomas, I was not going to be convinced until he could download them and play them on his iPod! 2 Hours and 80 songs later, he disconnected the iPod and tried it out.

It worked!

Well, while I was not nasty with the Tech at the Apple store, I was not nice either. But swallowing my Tech Pride, I called and asked for the Tech. He was at lunch. So I asked to leave a message and the guy on the other end said sure. I told him who I was (the tech will probably remembered me as you do have to sign up for appointments, remember?), and said I wanted to thank Brian X as what he told me was 100% right and he had fixed the iPod and I was thankful for his patience with a less than smiling customer.

The other guy said he would give the tech the message, and could he share it with his supervisor? Of course.

I don't like being wrong, but when I am, I am more than willing to eat some crow and admit it to the guy who helped me. So here is a blog for you Brian X. And thanks again.

If I have any more problems with it, I know who I am going to ask for in the future!

This is a great example of one of my main issues with blogs and online forums. People often don't feel like they have to treat others in the same manner here as they do in real life. I don't think I've ever said anything to someone online that I wouldn't also say to their face. I often wonder whether other people pay the same respect to me.

It is admirable that you went out of your way to let Brian X know that you were wrong and apologize. I would just hope that you would offer that same courtesy, humility, and respect to people in online interactions as well.

Everyone is quick to gripe...but I think its great you took the time to compliment a job well done.

Yea, I am quick. But then while I hate it when I am wrong, I hate it more if I gave the right guy a hard time. As I said, I was not nasty, just not nice. Besides, since he knew more than the tech, I dont want them to lose him!

It is admirable that you went out of your way to let Brian X know that you were wrong and apologize. I would just hope that you would offer that same courtesy, humility, and respect to people in online interactions as well.

This is yet another example of why I don't like macs though. My son got an iPod Nano and it has been no end of frustration. My other son got a 50 generic MP3 player and we've had no problem with it whatsoever. The iPod didn't even come with a complete set of instructions.. just a foldout sheet that basically told us nothing except that you can't do anything with it if you aren't online.

Techs, even customer service people, rarely get a thank you, but lots of curses. I try to acknowledge when they do good as I know they get lots of complaints. It just tastes worse when I have to swallow the crow.

Techs, even customer service people, rarely get a thank you, but lots of curses. I try to acknowledge when they do good as I know they get lots of complaints. It just tastes worse when I have to swallow the crow.

Yeah I know exactly how that is. When I first started out as a field tech I learned very quickly to expect curses not thank you.

After a few years though I became the guy they sent to deal with the "difficult" customers. I had the highest positive call in rate in the company. I figured out a couple of things.

1. You can actually tell someone it's their fault, they did it wrong, or to basically go to hell in such a way that they feel good about it and will thank you for it.

2. They aren't really mad at me, just mad at the situation. Fix it and they'll stop being mad.

1. You can actually tell someone it's their fault, they did it wrong, or to basically go to hell in such a way that they feel good about it and will thank you for it.

2. They aren't really mad at me, just mad at the situation. Fix it and they'll stop being mad.

Good rules to live by. Especially the second one. Kind of a bummer when you get something and it does now work right out of the box. But it was not this guy's fault. He just told me what I did not want to hear, but was right.